My name is Petr and I spent one year as an Erasmus and later as a regular master student in the Netherlands. I studies Infonomics at Maastricht University and this blog is about my student life and experiences in Maastricht.

My name is Petr and I spent one year as an Erasmus and later as a regular master student in the Netherlands. I studies Infonomics at Maastricht University and this blog is about my student life and experiences in Maastricht.

Visit of Eindhoven on the way back to Maastricht

Detailed description of my flight from Brno to Eindhoven and than my own special Eindhoven city tour and shops sightseeing before taking the train to reach my destination of Maastricht.

I went to Brno on Thursday to make sure I get on the airport on Friday on time and also to visit a friend of mine. We didn't plan to do sightseeing of the city, as I already know it a bit, but just to have a chilled and relaxed day. Actually, for me it was also better to arrive a day earlier to Brno so I had enough time to get to the airport and not miss the plane due to some travel complications.

Brno Airport

Sleeping girl at the airport, source: my picture

I was a bit worried, that they will cancel my plane as not many people want to travel on Friday the 13th. But for me were most of those Fridays in the past just normal days. Ok, I missed the first tram, but I got at the Airport one hour and 40 minutes before my flight was scheduled I took some photos after crossing a very icy road and then entered the airport. Hm, not many people there, but at the security check funny thing happened. A blond girl, young (about 20 years old I guess) was travelling obviously for the first time only with the hand luggage as I do not have any other explanation. She had in her bag several big bottles of cosmetics like liquid soap, hair spray etc. and the small ones not in a plastic bag. I know that this security rule is a bit strange, but anyway it's a rule. She was very surprised, that the security guy threw her stuff away and put small bottles into separated plastic bag. And of course, a bit latter when I was sitting in the departure hall, she came in and phoned some friend describing him, what such a terrible thing happened to her and she could not understand why. Nice distraction of the day

Let's fly

By snow covered Czech Republic, source: my picture

Plane arrived at 9:24 (from Eindhoven) like the one I took 3 weeks ago, when I was travelling home for Christmas holidays. We were allowed to come aboard several minutes later, so at 10:40 I entered the plane. The plane rolled to the end of the runway and we took off at 10:06 (scheduled at 10:10) and the stewardess announced that in about 1 hour and 35 minutes, we shall be in Eindhoven. Weather was good, not many clouds, so I could see the land under us and take pictures. I think we flew at 10:25 over Prague . Fields were covered by snow. At 10:35 when we were approaching the borders (guessing by the coal mines and that the clouds were higher due to the presence of the mountains) we experienced some turbulence – this happened for the first time in my life, but was only my 7th flight Then I fell asleep as most of the passengers on the plane. At 11:10 the captain announced the start of the landing process so we began to lose the altitude. At that time also suddenly most of the clouds under us disappeared – special sign of the Netherlands? I was not sure, as there were wind power plants on the ground. I also like to observe how the plane changes it's wings for getting more or less uplift as this is very interesting at the moments of landing.

Eindhoven sightseeing

Eindhoven – Anne Frank plantation, source: my picture

We landed in Eindhoven at 11:37. The landing was a bit hard and done wheel by wheel like there would be a strong wind, similar to the one in Rotterdam 3 months ago. We waited a bit for the stair to be properly attached to the plane and then could get out. As I didn't have any checked luggage, I just walked by the security guys into the arrival hall. I tried my luck at the information office and asked if the girl at the desk happened to have a map of Eindhoven and she had She apologized for having only old one – from the last year But it was more than enough for me.

I got map, plenty of time and the weather looked fine so I said to myself – the walk into Eindhoven it is. I was not sure, how many kilometres it would be, but I remembered, that it was roughly about 2 hours of walking. Google maps would tell me later I like the local buildings and appeareance of the city it is similar to the west Germany. I took a lot of pictures during my journey to the city centre so you enjoy the city of Eindhoven too. I know that Google Streetview is available for Eindhoven, but still, it's better my way I enjoyed the discovery of a small zoo in the middle of the city, seeing teenagers leaving school at half past two, nice parks and the shops in the city centre. I recognized the building of the train station by the sign of NS, but it looks like a restaurant from the outside.

Train from Eindhoven to Maastricht

Eindhoven train station, source: my picture

I found out, train from Eindhoven to Maastricht goes every 30minutes. Great news, so I left the station to check some shops decided that I will take the train at 16:32 as it's getting dark at about 17 o'clock and I was getting tired after the 4 hour walk. I bought the ticket at the automat – thought that it would cost 14,5€, but it cost 15,2€. Some price increase in 2012 or what? This time I put attention to sit in the correct part of the train, as the back of the train goes to Heerlen after Sittard. This time again, no controller came to check the ticket, even if the ride takes more than hour – train arrives at 17:34. Also I do not know how the prices of train tickets are set. Definitely not according to the distance between the stations. Funny thing is, that I paid 50% more for the train ticket from Eindhoven to Maastricht than for the plane ticket from Brno to Eindhoven

As the world is small and Maastricht even smaller I met familiar Czech students (Petra and Samuel and I went to Brno before Christmas with Petra) standing at the back entrance when I was leaving the train station. They were waiting for a friend from Switzerland, so we chatted for a while until he came and then I went to my place.

Detailed map of my Eindhoven city tour

Well, the shortest way according to Google is 7,6km, but I made a tour of 12,8km. I stated at 12 o'clock and took train at 16:32 after spending some time in shops. I would say that this is not that bad balance

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Petr Polák is a former Erasmus master student of Economics and currently regular master student of Infonomics at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. This blog is about his life and experiences in Maastricht. More about this blog.